The Little Drummer Boy, Book II

I was kind of surprised that there was a sequel to the Little Drummer Boy as The Little Drummer Boy, Book II. I’ve first watched it on Fox Family, and might remember to be disappointed, but I’m getting ahead of the pages. What’s the story?

Milkier and Aaron is finding an important man named Simian, who made big silver bells to be played when the New Born King arrive to be heard throughout Bethlehem. The Silver Bells was relinquished by the Roman Tax Collectors, with Plato the second in-command and led by Brutus (voiced by Zero Monstel).  

Aaron plan on distracting the Roman Tax Collectors by performance he may learn back in Jerusalem. Will the distraction work before Brutus melt the Silver Bells into Silver Bricks? The answer is no to Aaron, but distraction did work without him.  

Apparently when Aaron played his drum to new born king, not only his hatred for mankind is gone, but his hair is well showered, his mouth becomes close to the same color as his skin to the point if he has a mouth at all, and whatever personality he did have is gone. Then again, that’s what usually happens when a character goes from stubborn or negative to positive, positive makes your presence invisible, as seen with characters such as Linus from Sharkboy and Lavagirl, Karone in Power Rangers Lost Galaxy after her two first appearance, and maybe Gru from Despicable Me. This is the worst of the soft phase of a redesign of an early character I’ve seen yet. The film could have been just the Wise King, more preferably on Casper than others. Maybe this is the reason why in the next Nativity setting Rankin Bass film they would not include Aaron and focus on another point of view. The accurate title should be “Book 2: Silver Bells” and it involves a Little Boy somewhere.

Much like the first film, the protagonist and music would save the film. Zero Monstel as Brutus is the best part of the film. He’s a strong yet cynical leader. He and Plato are a likable duo of a villain. The songs “Money, Money, Money” by the villains and “Do you hear what I hear” sung by the choir is a nice song.

To me this might be as par with the first Little Drummer Boy, if not better. Sorry there’s not much to say for a 21 minute sequel. It’s not that great as the title character would drag it down. If you want to watch it for the villain and the songs, this is worth the price of a view. You want to see a continuation of the original to see character development, then this book or part of the bible to close.